Skip to main content

Human Capital: Further Guidance, Assistance, and Coordination Can Improve Federal Telework Efforts

GAO-03-679 Published: Jul 18, 2003. Publicly Released: Aug 18, 2003.
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

Telework--work done at a location other than a traditional office--has gained widespread attention over the past decade as a human capital flexibility offering various potential benefits to employers, employees, and society. Using such flexibilities as management tools can help the federal government address its human capital challenges. GAO did this study in response to a congressional request to assess the federal government's progress in implementing telework programs and to determine what else can be done to give federal employees the ability to telework under appropriate circumstances.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
General Services Administration The Administrator, GSA, should work with Congress to determine what was meant by the phrase "GSA telecommunication center" in Section 314, Division F, title III of Pub. L. No. 108-7 and whether this provision is in conflict with the provision contained in 40 U.S.C. 587(d)(2). Once these determinations are made, GSA should issue guidance to the relevant agencies to clarify these provisions and explain the impact of these laws on agencies' telework programs.
Closed – Implemented
The General Services Administration (GSA) provided documentation that GSA, in working with the Interior Subcommittees of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, confirmed that the phrase "telecommunications centers' in Section 314 did refer to GSA telework centers. The documentation also stated that the Committees acknowledged that this provision conflicted with the language in 40 U.S.C. 587 (d)(2) and they would consider eliminating this restriction in future appropriations acts. If the determination was made to continue the restriction; however, the documentation said that the language in Section 314 would be amended to specifically refer to the GSA telework centers to remove...
General Services Administration The Administrator, GSA, and the Director, OPM, should ensure that the offices in their agencies with responsibilities for the governmentwide telework initiative improve coordination of their efforts to provide federal agencies with consistent, inclusive, unambiguous support and guidance related to telework. To do so, they should clearly delineate their responsibilities for this initiative and work together to resolve existing areas of difference. The Memorandum of Understanding that the agencies are considering could be very helpful in making progress on this key issue.
Closed – Implemented
The Administrator, General Services Administration, and the Director, Office of Personnel Management, jointly signed a Memorandum of Understanding related to their respective roles in the federal telework initiative. This Memorandum, dated October 7, 2003, delineates GSA's and OPM's respective responsibilities for the telework initiative and describes their agreement "to work collaboratively to ensure that their [telework] efforts are fully coordinated and in combination provide agencies the assistance they need."
Office of Personnel Management The Administrator, GSA, and the Director, OPM, should ensure that the offices in their agencies with responsibilities for the governmentwide telework initiative improve coordination of their efforts to provide federal agencies with consistent, inclusive, unambiguous support and guidance related to telework. To do so, they should clearly delineate their responsibilities for this initiative and work together to resolve existing areas of difference. The Memorandum of Understanding that the agencies are considering could be very helpful in making progress on this key issue.
Closed – Implemented
The Administrator, General Services Administration, and the Director, Office of Personnel Management, jointly signed a Memorandum of Understanding related to their respective roles in the federal telework initiative. This Memorandum, dated October 7, 2003, delineates GSA's and OPM's respective responsibilities for the telework initiative and describes their agreement "to work collaboratively to ensure that their [telework] efforts are fully coordinated and in combination provide agencies the assistance they need."
Office of Personnel Management Furthermore, to enable agencies to more effectively implement the key practices that we identified as those that should be used for successful implementation of federal telework programs, the Administrator, GSA, and the Director, OPM, should use their lead roles in the federal telework initiative to assist agencies in implementing these practices. Using the key telework practices, GSA and OPM should identify areas where more information about implementation of the practices may be needed and provide agencies with the additional guidance, guidelines, and/or individualized technical support necessary to assist them in implementing those practices that are still in need of attention. Additionally, OPM agreed with a recommendation included in our recent report for OPM to serve as a clearinghouse in sharing and distributing information about the broad range of human capital flexibilities available to federal agencies. In implementing that recommendation, OPM should include information about telework, because it is such a flexibility. To provide agencies with the capabilities to effectively implement telework, both GSA and OPM should continue to monitor agencies' telework programs and align their efforts with areas that are still in need of attention.
Closed – Implemented
GSA and OPM sent the key practices to agency telework coordinators recommending they employ them as a self-assessment tool for telework programs using GAO's analytical framework. By 2004, OPM included GAO-03-679 in federal agency manager and employee on-line training as a resource on successful telework program characteristics. The courses referred to key practices GAO identified as 'characteristics of successful telework programs' under the topic 'Success Factors for Effective Telework' and both were made available at www.usalearning.gov including links to GAO's report. These courses are now available for free at www.telework.gov--the OPM/GSA maintained interagency telework site; they...
General Services Administration Furthermore, to enable agencies to more effectively implement the key practices that we identified as those that should be used for successful implementation of federal telework programs, the Administrator, GSA, and the Director, OPM, should use their lead roles in the federal telework initiative to assist agencies in implementing these practices. Using the key telework practices, GSA and OPM should identify areas where more information about implementation of the practices may be needed and provide agencies with the additional guidance, guidelines, and/or individualized technical support necessary to assist them in implementing those practices that are still in need of attention. Additionally, OPM agreed with a recommendation included in our recent report for OPM to serve as a clearinghouse in sharing and distributing information about the broad range of human capital flexibilities available to federal agencies. In implementing that recommendation, OPM should include information about telework, because it is such a flexibility. To provide agencies with the capabilities to effectively implement telework, both GSA and OPM should continue to monitor agencies' telework programs and align their efforts with areas that are still in need of attention.
Closed – Implemented
GSA and OPM have sent the key practices to agency telework coordinators recommending the coordinators employ the key practices as a self-assessment tool for their telework programs, using the GAO analytical framework. In addition, by 2004, OPM had included GAO-03-679 in on-line training for both agency managers and employees throughout the federal government as a resource on the characteristics of successful telework programs. The courses directly referred to the key practices GAO identified as 'characteristics of successful telework programs' under the topic 'Success Factors for Effective Telework.' Both of these courses were made available at www.usalearning.gov (now www.golearn.gov)...

Full Report

Media Inquiries

Sarah Kaczmarek
Managing Director
Office of Public Affairs

Public Inquiries

Topics

Federal agenciesHuman capitalInteragency relationsPersonnel managementStaff utilizationTelecommutingHuman resources managementFederal employeesEligibility criteriaExecutive agencies